Couture Culture: A Study in Modern Art and Fashion

408 Pages·2002·7.44 MB·english

by  Nancy J. Troy

The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England
A Study in Modern Art and Fashion
Nancy J. Troy
©2003Massachusetts Institute of Technology
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic
or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and
retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
This book was set in Adobe Garamond by Achorn Graphic Services, Inc.
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Troy, Nancy J.
Couture culture : a study in modern art and fashion / Nancy J. Troy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-20140-2 (hc : alk. paper)
1. Costume design. 2. Fashion and art. 3. Fashion—France—History—20th century.
4. Clothing trade—France—History—20th century. 5. Fashion designers—France—
History—20th century. 6. Fashion merchandising—France—History—20th century.
7. Theater and society—France—History—20th century. 8. Poiret, Paul. I. Title.
TT507 .T845 2002
746.9′2′0904—dc21
2002023338
Illustration credits are found on page 415.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Wim, Daniel, and Elias de Wit

Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 

Fashion, Art, and the Marketing of Modernism 

Theater and the Spectacle of Fashion 

Fashioning Commodity Culture 

The Readymade and the Genuine Reproduction 
Conclusion 
Notes 
Sources Consulted 
List of Illustrations 
Index 
Acknowledgments
My interest in the relationship between modern art and fashion emerged
while I was a Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in 1989–90, finish-
ing a book on the decorative arts in France in which couturier Paul Poiret
played a small, but important, role. Over the course of the ensuing twelve
years, I have pursued that interest with the financial support of many
institutions and with intellectual and practical help from a large number
of individuals. It is a pleasure to be able to thank them here.
The research for this book has been generously supported by fel-
lowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Getty
Research Institute, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,
the AT&T Research Fellowship at Northwestern University, the Zum-
berge Faculty Research and Innovation Fund at the University of South-
ern California, and the Raubenheimer Award for Excellence in Teaching,
Research, and Service, also at the University of Southern California.
It would be impossible to mention individually all the library and
archive personnel who have assisted me over the years, but I would
like to acknowledge the principal institutions where I received invalu-
able assistance with my research: in Bath, England, the Fashion Research
Centre; in Berkeley, the Bancroft Library at the University of California–
Berkeley; in Los Angeles, the Architecture and Fine Arts Library, the
Doheny Memorial Library and the Law Library at the University of
Southern California, the Getty Research Institute, the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, the Department of Special Collections in the
Young Memorial Library at University of California–Los Angeles; in
New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Costume Institute at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and
the New York Public Library; in Paris, the Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal,
Acknowledgments
Bibliothèque Doucet, Bibliothèque Forney, Bibliothèque Nationale de
France, Institut Français d’Architecture, Musée de la Mode de la Ville de
Paris, Musée de la Mode et du Textile; in San Francisco, the San Francisco
Public Library.
Two individuals have been particularly generous in sharing remi-
niscences of members of their families as well as documents and photo-
graphs. Madame Perrine Poiret-de Wilde welcomed me into her home on
several occasions, as did Admiral Albert Joire-Noulens. I am grateful for
their invaluable encouragement and help.
I have been extraordinarily fortunate that many good friends and
knowledgable colleagues have contributed their expertise and assistance in
diverse ways. Without their help, no doubt this book would have lan-
guished or never been completed. I would like to thank Alina Payne for
inviting me to give the Teezel Lectures at the University of Toronto,
where my research first assumed a shape similar to the form it takes here;
Victoria Kahn, who has always been my most astute reader and support-
ive friend; David Román, who brought his keen editorial eye to bear on a
related essay he solicited for Theatre Journal; and Rick Richman, who
asked the staff of his law firm library to locate on my behalf a crucial legal
decision from 1915. Roger Conover at the MIT Press has sustained a long-
term interest in my work while challenging me to broaden its scope
through his intellectual engagement with the topic and incisive com-
ments on my manuscript. Deborah Cantor-Adams did a superb job in the
production editing of this volume, with its sensitive design by Emily
Gutheinz, and Terry Lamoureux skillfully coordinated the production
process. I am particularly indebted to Andrew Perchuk, not simply for
research and editorial assistance over several years but, more importantly,
for the lasting intellectual exchange we developed in innumerable conver-
sations about the material explored in this book. Leila Kinney, Molly
Nesbit, Alexandra Palmer, and Lisa Tickner were especially generous in
sharing their extensive knowledge and deep understanding of the issues
ix